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September 2010
September 1, 2010
The big new is: Anastasia starts kindergarten next week! She's going to a publically funded charter school with impressive academics. It is basically assisted home schooling. We attended orientation last night. Anastasia adores her teacher, but left the school saying, "Why didn't Mrs. P. teach me? Why didn't she teach me math?"
This morning, the first thing out of Anastasia's mouth was, "Can I go to school today?"
She instantly made friends with one of the other little kindergarten girls. Anastasia started by telling her knock-knock jokes. She only knows two real ones, but the little girl seemed to think even her made-up, nonsensical ones were hysterical. The teacher asked, "Are they friends?" It was hard to believe they'd just met.
Quotes & Tid-bits:
Miss A.: "But I'm too tired to go to bed!" (She continues to have problems staying asleep at night.)
Zane: "HAP-py boy! HAP-py boy!" (Said mostly
when food's involved.)
Miss A., holding up a picture she just drew: "Mommy, can we save
this and when we die someone can put it in a museum???"
Miss A., to me when she discovered her pediatrician appointment would
involve two vaccinations: "I came prepared for ONE shot."
The Miss also saw the ophthalmologist last week, in prep for school. The doc was stunned by her. Anastasia had 20/25 vision in both eyes, but he said that for her age, using a letter chart (not a symbols chart), that's outstanding. The exam on her eyes showed no after-affects from ROP. The doc declared her eyes perfect.
September 18, 2010
School is going well, though certainly taking some getting used to. The first week, Zane was a little stinker. I'd set him up at the kitchen table with something to scribble on, or a puzzle to do, and that would keep him occupied for a few minutes. Then all he wanted to do was grab his sister's books and pencils. Last week was better.
It's also tough for Anastasia to concentrate for more than an hour at a time, even with wiggle breaks. Last week at school, she had her head on her desk for the last hour. Fortunately, she's not the only child struggling to stay awake and focused :)
Anastasia's sleep habits continue to be about the same. The first week of school, she slept pretty soundly, but last week, she was up a lot during the night. As I've said before, what she does during the day - including lots of physical or mental activity - has no bearing on how well she sleeps.
By Fridays, she's pretty wiped out, so I'm experimenting with ways to get us through that day's school work without tears. Chocolate chip cookies help!
What is Anastasia's favorite subject? She claims it's also the subject she has the most difficulty with: Cursive. She whizzes through her math book; it's no more advanced than what I taught her during home preschool. She whizzes through most of her phonics, too, although she's now learning some two-letter phonograms. Anything to do with reading she adores. She's not too keen on coloring, but now that coloring is part of her school work, she sometimes really takes her time and does an incredible job for her age. She's doing well in geography and recitation, and her character studies are a piece of cake.
I do think I see signs of her maturing, too. The other day she did a typical-Anastasia thing. After dinner, instead of changing into her PJs and coming out and spending time with the family, she chose to not change her clothes and to play alone in her room. When it was bedtime, she of course cried because she hadn't been able to play with us. I explained how that was a choice she made (as I've explained to her repeatedly). But this time, she cried, "I don't like the choice I made!" Maybe something is clicking there.
Today, she told me that when she grows up and has "four babies" she's going to make them all pick up their own toys, "even when they are little." I said, "Oh? Well since you feel that way, I guess I should make you always pick up your own toys without help." She didn't much like that idea :)
Last weekend, we went to Chuck E. Cheese for a cousin's birthday. Anastasia was thrilled because she thought she'd finally worked up the nerve to crawl through the big tube that travels along the ceiling. She climbed inside and lost her nerve, though - at least until her older cousin agreed to go through with her. Then she went through the tube over and over again.
Zane, being typically Zane and wanting to do every single thing his sister does, tried to climb in after Anastasia. But he was too short to climb up the stairs to the top of the tube. So one of his cousins helped him. Zane thought the tube was the coolest thing ever. I don't think I've ever seen him laugh so much.
Zane continues to thrive. He's such a sweet little guy. One of his favorite things to do is stand in front of our digital photo frame and watch the pictures of his loved ones. He points and smiles and laughs.
He's also hugely into trains an blocks of all types. He builds stacks of blocks so high he can't reach the top; he hands me blocks one by one and indicates he wants me to put them on top. When they finally topple over, he gets a frustrated look (and sometimes makes frustrated noises), but then he usually grins and says "BOOM!"
Although Zane is gradually saying more and more words, he rarely says them in a useful way. For example, he doesn't tell me he's hungry, or tired, or that he wants a toy. If I ask him "Are you poopy?" he will sometimes repeat "poopy" to tell me he needs a diaper change. Once in a while, he'll say "apple" when he wants to eat one.
And he still says "hap-PY!" or "hap-PY boy!" when he's content.
September 7, 2010
Today was Anastasia's first day of school. I waited until I woke her up in the morning to tell her this, because she gets so high strung about these things she can't sleep. She was both thrilled and slightly apprehensive. (But when I asked if she was nervous, she frowned and said, "I'm NOT nervous, Mom!")
The Miss did an excellent job introducing herself to everyone (even the "big kids") and was quite the eager beaver in class. She wanted to be called on to answer most of the questions, and couldn't wait to do any hands on stuff the teacher requested. She did get pretty tired toward the end, but shortly after I noticed signs of fatigue in her, other kids started showing it, too. The teacher is a sweetie, and I think Anastasia is going to thrive at this school.
September 29, 2010
Zane hadn't been tested for allergies for about a year, so today it was time to see if he's outgrown his egg allergy. Poor little guy. He sure knows how to stick his whole body to me like glue. I couldn't have peeled him off if I tried! The good news was he's no longer allergic to egg yolk. He is, however, still allergic to egg white. This, the allergy doc says, is typical of a child who's outgrowing his egg allergy. Perhaps next year he'll have allergies at all.
Earlier in the week, we took the kids on a little chore adventure. We took them into the mall - and realized this was a first when Anastasia said, "Mommy, what is this place?" When I explained what a mall was, she said, "The mall is beautiful!" Zane was less enthusiastic.
We also took the kids to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Anastasia loves going to restaurants (even though she claims she hates eating), and we think Zane took "all-you-can-eat" to mean "you-must-eat-everything." He kept eating and eating and eating until we finally pulled him away from the table. He even ate the rinds off his orange wedges!
Zane loves doing anything Anastasia is doing. School work time is finally a bit more bearable because I give Zane a coloring book and crayons and tell him to do his "homework," for example. And the other day, after I painted Anastasia's toe nails with light blue nail polish, he grabbed the polish, sat on the floor, and pointed to his toes. Dear boy!
Zane is also already starting to create gadgets. I
turned around the other day and he'd connected two vacuum attachments to
a USB cable. Don't know what it was supposed to be, but it was
definitely purposeful!
Anastasia is doing well with her school work. She did her first
recitation in class, and spoke clearly and loudly, and without a qualm.
She also presented her first "speech." We made a small poster about her,
and she had to stand in front of class and explain it. She could hardly
wait until it was time to give her speech, and again, she showed no sign
of nerves. She presented the information very clearly.
She's also really working to be a better behaved girl. She's even trying harder to pick up after herself. However, one day when I tried to vacuum her room, but couldn't because there were toys and such all over the floor, she said, "I''m sorry my room is so messy, Mama. But life is hard."